The present invention deals with a liquid sprayable epoxy composition. The invention is also concerned with a liquid epoxy composition that further contains an elastomeric component.
Molded truck bed liners have been utilized but are generally comprised of a variety of materials such as polyethylene or polypropylene or polyvinyl chloride. The liners are generally vacuum formed and are stored in inventory to fit a particular configuration of a truck bed so that it may be a drop-in liner. Such liners have become useful as a means of protecting the truck bed itself and to improve the appearance characteristics of the vehicle.
An inventory problem is present with the formed drop-in place truck bed liners, for a substantial amount of volumetric space must be kept for storage of such liners.
Liners in the past have been prepared by spraying a resinous material onto a fiberglass backing and, while the backing is in a shapable configuration, adjusting it by hand to the truck bed. Such liners have a tendency to crack upon exposure to severe cold temperatures thereby separating from the truck bed itself.
Other truck bed liners have been utilized that are not of a nature to have desirable toughness, impact strength and elasticity to withstand friction of goods that would need to be placed into and off of such liners. Drop in liners are plagued with problems of dirt, moisture and mudpacking between the truck bed itself and the liner that creates an environment for accelerated corrosion of the metal beneath the liner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,129, Ramalingam et al., describes a one component composition for application to a substrate such as an automotive metal body panel to provide reinforcement thereto which contains a heat curable epoxy resin which has as a component thereof, a carboxy terminated elastomer, a curing agent such as dicyandiamide and a plurality of inorganic particulate filler materials. The epoxy resin contains both a liquid epoxy resin and a solid epoxy resin.
An object of the present invention is to employ a liquid sprayable epoxy composition which contains reinforcing amounts of a fibrous material as well as an elastomeric component which may be curable at room temperature as low as 40 F and is stable to the environment as well as having the ability to withstand the frictional requirements of a vehicle, e.g. truck bed liner, such as having a hardness on the Shore D scale. This composition resists "blushing", i.e. carbonation, and can be tailored to exhibit varying coefficients of friction.